South Africa’s Eskom is looking to replace Zimbabwe as an importer of electricity from Mozambique and Zambia to help ease load shedding.
Zimbabwe’s contracts with Mozambique’s Electricidade de Mocambique and Zambia’s Zesco will expire at the end of the month, according to the chairman of the country’s Zesa, Zimbabwe is failing to pay the $6.3 million (R104 million) monthly import bill to Zambia.
“Zesa now has up to July 31 to draw the supply or else the contracts will be cancelled and the supply re-allocated to other utilities,” Sydney Gata, the chairman of the country’s Zesa said.
He also mentioned that Zimbabwe will stand to lose heavily as these contracts are long-term and at a competitive price.
Meanwhile, Eskom, which supplies almost all of South Africa’s power from coal-fired plants, has subjected the country to intermittent outages for more than a decade because it can’t meet demand.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said this week the company will turn to its neighbours to purchase surplus power, one of a number of measures designed to ease the crisis.
